


Come Back Persephone and Be Reborn

by Velocity_Owl87



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Comfort No Hurt, F/M, Greek and Roman Mythology - Freeform, Introspection, Language of Flowers, Romance, Romantic Gestures, Secret Relationship, Symbolism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2015-05-12
Packaged: 2018-03-30 06:37:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3926566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Velocity_Owl87/pseuds/Velocity_Owl87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was the very human flicker of emotion that had Sidney saying yes to Alexandrina Ovechkina's invitation during the All Star Weekend. He honestly thought that would be the end of it, but she left the door open and made a promise.</p><p>A promise that he wanted to fulfill as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Come Back Persephone and Be Reborn

**Author's Note:**

> The slow spring has prompted yet another Fem! Alex Ovechkin, but this time, having a secret relationship with her greatest rival, Sidney Crosby. 
> 
> This is a loose retelling of the Persephone myth and how she ate the seeds and has to come back. The Sunflowers are the ones that serve here as the pomegranate seeds and Sid is Hades, more or less. 
> 
> Proofed and edited, but if there are mistakes, they will be edited. 
> 
> Title is from "My Dear Persephone" By Kula Shaker

He wouldn’t have gone with her if it hadn’t been for the edge of uncertainty that he could see in those sparkling icy eyes, pupils blown a bit with alcohol and too much stimulation. There was only so much arrogance he could take from her at a certain time. But that was the last thing that he saw in her flushed face. Her hair was coming loose from the fancy hairdo she had managed to tame her waves into and there were some tendrils stuck to her cheeks when she looked at him.

Despite her smile being wide as always, there was just a bit of a stiff edge to her lips that others not as observant would have missed. She was nervous when she looked at him, despite the inviting posture and the flirtatious gesture of her hands, there was as much anxiety there as lust. Despite being one of the top players, she was still as human as all of them when approaching someone she wanted to be with.

It was these small signs of humanity that made his own shock and nerves ease away when she walked up to him and tilted her head towards the doors.

He didn’t hesitate, despite it being against his better judgement. Everyone talked in these things and maybe it wasn’t a good idea to hook up with his supposed rival.

But it was that small flash of vulnerability in her face that made him throw all caution to the wind and follow right behind her, but not so much as to make it obvious.

“Your room or mine, _Seedney_?”

It was the outright mangling of his name that saved the question from being too sultry and pushed it into downright silliness, making Sidney nearly snort.

“Mine’s closer and I wouldn’t dream of depriving you of the honour that a walk of shame brings.”

It took her a bit to get that, but when she did, she snorted hard and nearly lost her balance in the heels she hadn’t yet taken off. She did manage to get back on track and pulled the shoes off, hooking them on her fingers before looking back at him.

“Well?”

He only smiled as he fished out his keycard and went down two doors from where she was standing, opened the door and held it open for her.

~*~*~*~*~

She’s the one on him once the door is open, her mouth on his and tasting of harsh mint and a bit of chocolate with an edge of alcohol. It’s a weird mix of flavours, but he doesn’t get hung up on it since her mouth is still soft despite the stickiness of her lipgloss and she can kiss. He doesn’t know who taught her, but he can bet she was a quick study with the way that each press of her mouth, each caress of her tongue is going straight to his dick.

He grabs her and presses her against him, making her give a throaty chuckle when she felt the hard outline of his cock pressed against her thigh, the fabric of her dress thin and flimsy enough to allow for it to happen.

“Is Sidney happy to see me?”

“More than happy. I’ll show you how happy if you stop using bad lines.”

She laughs then, shimmying away with just enough to reach up and slide the straps of her dress down, pull the zipper and let it drop to the ground. It leaves her standing there in a matching black knicker and bra set, the stockings stark against her honey skin.

It makes his breath catch and it also makes him nearly rip off his clothes in his hurry to get naked.

She approves of what she sees by making a small hum of approval before he is the one to take the lead and tackle her down onto the bed.

It doesn’t take long after to have her naked and squirming underneath him, those long legs wrapped around his hips, her blunt nails scratching his back as he slams into her. He’s not gentle the first couple of times, leaving her bruised and panting.

It’s once they’ve gotten the animal lust and passion and other emotions too complicated to actually verbalize out of their systems before it moved to slow and tender.

He explored her body after she had finally fallen asleep. Although he was on the edge of falling asleep himself, he was entranced by the soft play of light on her skin. The shadows that played on her muscles, the curves and valleys of her body as she lay there, barely covered by the sheets. Her head was resting on her arms, her hair a tangle of curls down her back, obscuring a bit of green on her lower ribcage.

Curious, he pushed the hair away to reveal a tattoo of three sunflowers, the colours a bright splash on her pale ribcage. It was smaller than his hand, the tattoo hidden when he splayed his hand on her side. She stirred and murmured something, her eyelids flickering at the feeling of his hand on her skin.

He pulled away only reluctantly before turning out the lights and falling asleep almost instantly.

When he came to, she was pinning up her hair with a handful of pins that still clung to her mane despite the night’s activities. Once she was done, she sat down at the edge of the bed while Sid stared at her, his face neutral as he waited for her to make some kind of pithy remark. He waited, but all she did was smooth her dress down before looking straight at him.

“I will like, very much, to see you. Later.”

The words were rough and not practiced and they were better for it, since he knew that she wasn’t just speaking them to get over the morning after awkwardness.

Sid sat up and reached over for his phone, which he had left on his nightstand, unlocked it and handed it over to her.

“Put your number in. I’ll text you when I get in and we can go. After we beat you, of course.”

She snorted at that, but did as he asked her and returned the phone. He tapped out a quick text and was inwardly relieved when he saw it went through.

“Promises, promises.”

She got up then, planting a quick kiss on his mouth and slipped out without a backwards glance.

The memory of it stayed with him all weekend.

He also had to admit that it does help ease the sting of losing to Tazer’s team.

Just like being in her bed that night and slipping out right after.

~*~*~*~*

Sidney doesn’t really think that he’s a sentimental man, but he had to admit to it whenever he looked at the vase of dried sunflowers sitting on his mantelpiece. They’re just flowers, his mind tells him, but he can’t help the small jolt of happiness that he feels whenever he catches a glimpse of them out of the corner of his eye.

They’re an unspoken promise that she’ll come back to him again. When the snow melts and the season is done, she will come and visit him again. He knew this with the same certainty that he knew the sun would set in the west and that he would still be able to cement a legacy to be proud of.

Despite being nonchalant (or he assumed. He hadn’t really done anything overt to draw attention to them. No matter how much he sometimes wanted to sit and look at them) about them being there, there were some giveaways that they meant a lot more to him than he’d let on. He got a whole lot of flack for them when his teammates, family, and friends came over to visit. He had even caught Flower giving them a questioning glance a few times, but he didn’t explain their presence there.

He just ignored the remarks and went on with his life. It wasn’t really a secret he wanted to share with anyone that wasn’t her.

Maybe he could have hidden them in his bedroom, but he felt that it was too much secrecy and despite everything that she was, a dirty secret wasn’t it. So her flowers stayed in the same vase that she had put them in when she had first come to his house.

He had been to Washington as she had asked of him, but they hadn’t much time. He had only seen the front foyer of her house before she dragged him into her room and had her way with him and giving him one of the best of blowjobs he’d ever had that had left him nearly insensible before she climbed on top of him and rode him until both collapsed onto each other. They had only slept a bit before he was woken by his alarm, washed up, pressed a kiss on her shoulder and left her with just enough time to not get caught.

This was the first time time that she had been to his house and he hadn’t been expecting the present she had brought. He didn’t think that she was that sentimental, despite the hidden tattoos and the fact that she had combed her fingers through his hair when she had thought he was too deeply asleep to remember.

He had to admit that despite the evidence, he had never expected the sunflowers.

They had been alive back then and he had been confused when he had opened the door and found her standing on the doorstep with a bunch of them clutched tightly in her hand while the other kept her hat from blowing away in the breeze. Her face was nearly split in two with how wide her grin was and he couldn’t help but to smile back reflexively as he stepped back.

He had been too surprised to say anything or do anything other than stand back and watch as she rushed into his house and dropped her jacket and her bag onto the tiled floor while juggling the flowers. She kicked off her boots and padded into the kitchen leaving him to pick up her discarded coat, boots and bag and put them all in the space he had mentally already assigned to her. He was sure that when he went to Washington like she had asked him, she would have the same kind of space for him.

He was sure of it.

It wasn’t something that they addressed or even hinted at, but it was nice to have all the same.

Sid was aware of it keenly as he shut the closet and turned just in time to get a faceful of sunflowers.

“You need colour in your house, Sid!”

Ovechkina’s voice, a bit muffled, but still loud, came through the sunflowers, which he had to admit did brighten up his house of tasteful neutrals.

He wouldn’t admit it to her, though.

They weren’t like that. Not yet at least. It was still a bit tentative and a bit too new for them to have that kind of intimacy.

(Once he had that thought, he did have to wonder whether he was being a bit of a hypocrite or not. They had had a pretty intense weekend during the All Star Game. They’d done things that had made him flush pink when he had faced her in the arena the next day. Yet he still didn’t know what her bedroom looked like.)

“Here. Take them. Put them somewhere so that when you see them, you remember who is greater!”

Sid snorted, but still took the vase and the flowers and padded to the living room with Ovechkina trailing behind him like an overgrown lynx. He had no doubts that if Ovechkina could be associated with an animal, it would be a lynx: all big paws and fluff, but a fury underneath. He couldn’t blame her for playing that part of herself up. It was, to his mind, one the best weapons in her arsenal. How else was she going to survive in a sport full of men that outweighed her by fifty pounds and towered over her by at least four inches?

She wasn’t small or built delicately compared to other women. But she was small in NHL standards and she had to use things other than her speed or her slapshot to compete with the big boys. He respected that and that was why he’d picked the lynx, rather than a house cat. She wasn’t tame. Never would be either.

Smirking a bit to himself, he scouted the living room, weighing the pros and cons of each space when Ovechkina’s excited yell broke them.

“There! That is perfect! You need to put it there!”

She jostled him as she clapped her hand on his shoulder and pointed to the mantel where a large mirror hung right above it.

It was supposed to make the space bigger or something, his decorator had said. Or something. He hadn’t been paying much attention, only nodding along when he was expected to and interjecting when it was painfully obvious that he was expected to reply.

“Here?”

Ovechkina nodded and he followed suit, placing them carefully, despite knowing full well that she was going to arrange them later when she thought that he wouldn’t be looking.

“Thanks. They are...pretty. And bright.”

Ovechkina snorted as she tucked a strand of caramel highlighted hair behind her ear. He followed the movement with his eyes and she laughed when she caught him looking.

“Too early for that. Besides, you haven’t bought me dinner. Where are Sid’s manners? And I bought you present too!”

She smirked at him as Sid rolled his eyes and moved back into the kitchen to look for his takeaway menus.

“We’re having Thai, then.”

Sid told her as he dig through his collection of menus to look for the least predictable take out. He’d already had Chinese and he felt that it was a bit too date-like if he went there. So Thai it was.

She didn’t care. She just leaned on the counter, her hair falling forward again and grinned.

“Add extra green curry, then. I know you don’t quite like it that spicy.”

She added, winking at him in such an exaggerated manner that he couldn’t help the snort of laughter that escaped him.  

She had that effect on him.

(Later on, he would admit that he liked egging her on like that. She didn’t care what she did to make him laugh. She liked hearing that high pitched bray that he often got teased for. He had to admit that was nice change of pace. He wouldn’t admit it to her face though. Her ego was big enough and didn’t need anymore feeding.)

~*~*~*~*

Later on, when he had watched her pull on her bra and top before grabbing her pants and sliding into them, did he ask her why she had brought sunflowers.

“You going to tell me you don’t like sunflowers, Sid?”

She asked, sighing and flopping back into bed dramatically, her hair flopping all over her face as she did.

Sid growled and smacked her in the face with a pillow, knowing full well it would just egg her on and possibly start a war that he wasn’t quite sure he would win. Sure enough, she bolted up, snatched the pillow and belted him a good one over the head. Not willing to go down that easily, he counteracted, grabbing it and trying to pull it out of her grasp. She was stubborn and kept a good hold on it so that when he yanked it back, all it did was sent them tumbling down onto the beige carpet, with her trapped underneath him and cackling merrily in his ear.

He laughed softly as he gently brushed her hair out of her face.

She flushed at his touch, the blush going down past her face, down her neck and down to her upper chest. Her lips parted and her chest moved as she took in a ragged breath. Despite her needing to go, the way her pupils were blown and her lips were wetly parted told Sid that wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

The sight of her going from silliness to outright lust was enough to send him over the edge as well. He licked his lips and moved his hand down to her waist. He felt her shudder a bit when he slid his hand under her shirt and moved it to cup her breast.

Her breathing got shallow and fast as his thumb brushed the lace and ribbon that he knew where red and black. He watched her face as he moved his hand behind her back. She was wasn’t stopping him, so he went further and unclasped it, slipping his hand inside and squeezing her breast.

“If we go fast. We have time.”

It was all the encouragement that he needed to get another round started again, a fast, hard one that made her eyes roll up into the back of her head and her hips and legs get even more bruised as he slammed into her. He hoped she didn’t have a game that night. She wasn’t going to be moving fast if that was the case.

His impending orgasm cleared his mind of anything other than completion, her breathy moans filling his ears as he rubbed her clit, finishing her off and leaving her gasping for air.

“They are Russia’s flowers.”

She told him after they had finished washing the evidence of their night off.

“What?”

“Russia’s flowers. The other is cham...chamomil?”

“Chamomile? As in tea?”

“See why I bring Sunflowers instead?”

“No. I still don’t.”

She paused in pulling on her coat and shoes before she finally replied.

“They a promise Sid. That I come back. I will always come back.”

She kissed him then, open mouthed and full of passion she only displayed in the bedroom and never outside, a dry-lipped peck on the cheek good enough to say goodbye.

But not this time.

He kissed her back until she was the one to break off the kiss, leaving him staring open-mouthed after her. He swallowed hard and tried to speak, but she was too fast.

He still said it anyway.

“I’ll hold you to it.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

The flowers died and he wasn’t ashamed to admit that he asked his mom how to preserve flowers. Once he had dried them out, he had placed them in the vase again. Ovechkina noticed them with a raise of an eyebrow, but said nothing.

The next time he showed up to Washington, he had with him a large bouquet of sunflowers.

Ovechkina look of slack-jawed surprise was certainly worth it.

“I also want to promise that I’ll come back.”

He had blurted out, his practiced speech suddenly gone out the window when he saw how touched she was at receiving the biggest bouquet of sunflowers he could muster at this late in the day.

She had been silent in awe as she took them and touched the petals softly and almost reverently.

There were tears in her eyes and her lips taste of clear water when she kissed him, making it so worth it. Even more so when she let him stay the night, wrapped around her and his nose buried in her hair.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Sunflowers-They are sometimes used as Russia's National Flower. It usually Chamomile, but due to the long association with Ukraine, they have also been used as Russia's flower when it is really the Ukraine's.
> 
> Besides, they are awesome flowers, so that was why I had to use them.
> 
> Sid, despite getting feelings for Ovechkina, refuses to call her by her first name. Maybe later, but for now, it's still her last name in his mind. Yes, he cares, but he's that much of a derp.


End file.
